Have you
been on the Web lately? Look around the hundreds of millions of web
pages and you will see it everywhere. Flash, it is the standard that is
defining how content is delivered over the Internet. But, Adobe is not
targeting only the web, Flash is on course for your desktop and mobile
devices, giving developers green pastures to target their content and
custom applications to a wider audience. The free Flash Player plays a
key role in the reach of the platform itself, but Flash CS3 Professional
plays a critical role in ensuring your content gets there fast! Let’s
take a look at the features of this new release:

New Features:

·Adobe
Photoshop and Illustrator import:
Import Adobe Photoshop® (PSD) and Adobe Illustrator® (AI) files, while
preserving layers and structure, and then edit them in Flash CS3
Professional. Optimize and customize the files during import with
advanced options.

·
Convert animation to ActionScript:
Instantly convert timeline animations into ActionScript™ 3.0 code that
can be easily edited, reused, and leveraged by developers. Copy
animations from one object to another.

·
Adobe interface:
Enjoy a new, streamlined interface that emphasizes consistency with
other Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications and can be customized to
improve workflow and maximize stage space.

·ActionScript 3.0 development:
Save time with the new ActionScript 3.0 language, featuring improved
performance, increased flexibility, and more intuitive and structured
development.

·Advanced debugger:
Test content with a powerful, new ActionScript debugger that offers
greater flexibility and user feedback, as well as consistency with Adobe
Flex™ Builder™ 2 debugging.

·Advanced QuickTime export:
Render content published in a SWF file as a QuickTime video using the
advanced QuickTime exporter. Export content that includes nested
MovieClips, content generated with ActionScript language, and runtime
effects such as drop shadow and blur.

·
Timesaving coding tools:
Save coding time with new code editor enhancements. Focus on relevant
code with code collapse and commenting, and jump to code errors with the
error navigation feature.

Like its
core siblings Flash CS3 features the new design and layout common to
Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 making it easier to work between
applications resulting in an efficient workflow. Tools can be configured
in one or two column panels. Panels can now be docked along the edge of
the monitor, or minimized to icon view, so that they can fly out when
needed, freeing valuable screen area. Even the Timeline can be docked.

CS3 Integration

Users of
Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash will greatly appreciate the focus on
integration in the CS3 releases. Native Photoshop files can now be imported
while preserving more features from the original PSD file. Layer hierarchy,
transparency, and blend modes remain intact, and Photoshop layer styles
become Flash filter effects. You can also choose which layers you want to
import and how to treat them in Flash. For example, you can keep text
editable, or convert to vector outlines or flattened bitmaps. You can even
create Flash movie clips during import to simplify your Flash workflow.

With
Illustrator, documents import into Flash has been improved too, with added
features that reduce repetitive tasks. You can import layered Illustrator
files, preserving layer attributes. Illustrator layers can be specified to
become Flash layers, keyframes, or be combined into one image during the
import process. Movie clips can be created from layers during the import
proves, complete with instance names, and set their registration points.

Drawing
Improvements

Consistency is a
key part of this release sharing unified experience with other Adobe tools.
The enhanced Pen tool behaves similarly to the Adobe Illustrator Pen tool,
with tighter control over vertices and control points. Two new vector
drawing primitives, Oval and Rectangle, offer easily adjustable alternatives
to the Ellipse and Rectangle shapes, and can be manipulated by using the
Property Inspector.

Flash filter
effects can now be copied from one symbol and applied to another, making it
easier to apply a consistent filter style to many symbol instances. The new
Copy Motion option in Flash lets you copy motion tween attributes of an
existing motion tween and apply it to another movie clip. This provides a
way for designers to reduce repetitive workflows by not having reconstructed
the tweens from scratch. Additionally, the motion is stored in XML format
and can be exported for use in future files.

Export Only
Visible Layers

A new publish
setting lets you choose whether objects in hidden layers are exported to SWF
files when published. This dramatically speeds workflow and increases your
publishing options by allowing you to include or exclude assets simply
hiding the layer in which they reside.

ActionScript
3.0

ActionScript is
now a more robust and powerful language. It boasts significant performance
improvements and includes many new features such as improved XML handling,
regular expression searching, sound visualization capabilities, and
full-screen display. The language itself isn’t the only area of improvement.
There are several new code editing features in Flash, such as code collapse,
block comment/uncomment options, and one-click navigation to reported
errors. You can now double click an error in the Compiler Errors panel to go
to the relevant code in the Actions panel or Script windows. When editing
external ActionScript files, you also specify which FLA to publish directly
from within the AS file. A new ActionScript 3.0 debugger has been added.

You can now
select a tween created in the timeline and copy the ActionScript 3.0 code
required to recreate it. The relevant attributes of the animation are
automatically translated into a combination of ActionScript and XML, and can
be replayed by ActionScript. This allows you to use ActionScript to easily
modify attributes of the tween.

ActionScript 3.0
also includes a set of new components which are pre-created collections of
graphics and code that can dramatically reduce the amount of design and
scripting you have to develop.

Integration
with QuickTime and Flash Video Encoder

If you work with
video, you will feel right at home in your workflow, because Flash already
has a strong focus on animation; you can create videos from movie clips
manipulated by ActionScript. An improved export process supports rendering
nested symbols, so that your videos work and play normally in the ubiquitous
Adobe Flash Player. The Flash Video Encoder has also been updated to be a
lot more robust and integrate better with Flash. I can now check preview
settings, import and export cue points using XML files. Deinterlacing has
also been added to the mix so your videos can come off with better quality
by checking a box. Custom Flash video can be saved and exported in supported
encoding profiles.

Adobe Flash CS3
is partly responsible for the modern Internet of today, and redefining the
web of tomorrow. The vastly improved animation capabilities, motion tweening,
frame by frame sequencing, enhanced Pen tool, and the added benefit of
copying and pasting filter effects and motion tweens brings a new
perspective to the designers workflow that not only strengthens the skill
set of designing and developing innovative content for the web, but also
focuses opening new doors for end users and budding content producers in the
Entertainment industry.

The traditional web developer
will certainly welcome Flash CS3’s tight integration with the Adobe Creative
Suite 3 so work flow experiences between designers and developers can be
more cohesive.